Re: institutions, collaborations, paranoic closures

Arne Raeithel (raeithel who-is-at informatik.uni-hamburg.de)
Sun, 23 Jun 1996 17:34:28 +0200

Ana, thank you for your posting about the extreme right in US America.
I must say that I am extemely alarmed to read the quotes you gave, while
still thinking that those group paranoias sound like the self-defeating
and self-destroying variants that are very well known from history.

Sometimes it takes a lot of time and suffering until they reach their
self-destructive end. Stalin's paranoia, and Hitler's, too, were much
more rationalized, to be sure, therefore had the mass appeal that we
saw and suffered from until this day.

As you-all know, we do not allow ideologies like these as free speech
or print here in Germany. Not anymore. Also, we never had the right
for every one to be armed.

I am not convinced at all that these two specials of the US constitution
should still be held as treasures of western democratic heritage. But,
on the other hand, I am also prepared to hear arguments for them, look
at the way the American democracy will handle this, and generally hope
for the millenium turn being just another round of stage fright of
the next generation.

Mike: a discussion about these matters would form the ground upon which
something like a theme for MCA could grow. Is this already possible?

Wolfgang Maiers would be a person to ask for German contributions
from Critical Psychology.

Just an observer: Arne.